Real Estate Matters | All you wanted to know about property investment – Renting & managing your investment property (part 8 of 8)

Juliet Risdon

Juliet Risdon is a Director of JML Property and a property investor.
Having established the company in 1994, JML Property offers Investment Property & Homes. It specializes in managing properties for owners and investors, and providing attractive and comfortable homes for tenants.

This is the final installment of an eight part series about putting your money to work.

“If you think our professional fees are high, you should compare it with the cost of hiring an amateur!”   – Red Adair, Texan Oil Firefighter

Welcome to the final part of this series.
Now that you have found your property and prepared it for rental, it is time to find someone to represent your interests and help you achieve the best rental income possible.
It’s easy to find a real estate agent, a quick walk around Taipa or Macau and you will see plenty of estate agents. The question is, how do you find a real estate agent that will help you to handle your property professionally ?
You can start with the newspaper.
The local Macau paper has properties for sale and rent in your area. Browse the listings to find properties similar to yours.
If you are letting a studio, you want to look for agents with plenty of studio listings. If you are renting a lakefront three-­bedroom apartment, look for those.
When you find similar properties, note the names and numbers of the agents that are selling and renting them.
The idea here is to find a real estate agent that has experience with your type of property.
An agent that has all the penthouses may not be the best to handle your one bedroom character property, for example.

What to ask a real estate agent
When you call the agents – and it’s best to call several – you want to verify that they do have experience renting out properties like yours and ask for examples.
Ask what they do to market a property?
Any agent can put together a sheet to stick on a window. Do they have existing leads? – people looking for properties like yours?
Do they let other agents know about your property?
Do they show their listings very often?
Many agents just list real estate for rent and let others lease it for them. It’s more profitable for them, but not for you.
If they are a good agent, you want them to go through the house with potential tenants.
Do they do their own negotiations?
You want the same person to be there through the whole process. You want one person to call. Things go wrong all the time in real estate, keep it simple and don’t complicate it further by having more people involved.
Once they have found a potential tenant what kind of support do they offer with contracts, rental collection, rental renewals, inspections, and maintenance support?
Trust your intuition when choosing an agent.
Ensure you have chemistry and a good relationship – If you don’t feel comfortable with an agent, it’s possible potential tenants won’t either. And ask the right questions.
You don’t just want to find a real estate agent you like, you want to find the right agent for your property.

www.JMLProperty.com
info@JMLProperty.com